


Small Slimy Companions

by c0cunt



Series: The Crab-Verse [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Other, Snails, Trans Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 17:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6667144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi really wishes he'd gotten home before Hanji had decided to take the aquarium he wanted to use.  He doesn't mind so much after watching over the tank's occupant for a little bit.<br/>Prompts:  "I can't believe you believed me!" and "Stop looking at me, it's your fault anyway."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Slimy Companions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daismo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daismo/gifts).



> The idea for this fic actually came from Kai a few weeks ago, but then...*shrug*

  Levi was really tired when he came home from work on Valentine’s day.  Setting up a brand new tank for already purchased animals (including transporting water from tanks that had their nitrogen cycle already going well, to jumpstart the new tank’s cycle) for his stupid friends, and inspecting the new tanks that his uncle had ordered for their store to make sure none of them were cracked...He still couldn’t figure out why Kenny had decided that having several hundred gallon tanks in the shop would be a good thing.  But, he had followed orders to start putting together the new tanks, two saltwater and two freshwater, as Kenny and Mikasa handled customers that came in.  There weren’t many, Valentine’s day wasn’t exactly a booming day for business in the pet fish industry, but it was still a mild relief that Levi didn’t have to deal with dumb customers with stupid questions. Even better, once the shop was officially closed for the day, Kenny told Levi to take home any tank he felt like having to give his datemate as a Valentine’s gift/apology for working on Valentine’s day.

  Honestly, Levi knew Hanji wouldn’t really care that he’d been working that day.  They had both agreed, when they first started casually seeing each other in college, that Valentine’s day was a stupid pseudo holiday and that neither of them wanted to celebrate it.  Not that it had changed for either of them, but once they got married, Kenny seemed to have warmed up to Hanji a bit more, and offered tanks or supplies to them at a discount for the holiday and when their wedding anniversary was coming up.  Given, not all of their tanks were filled with fish:  Hanji had a soft spot for strange pets, which meant that sometimes they had some strange tank inhabitants, including a giant cricket colony that had, at one point, been part of one of Hanji’s experiments when they were working on their master’s degree.  But Levi was at least excited to start setting up the tank that he had purchased last week for saltwater fish, after bargaining with Hanji that their next tank could go to whatever they wanted it for.

  Which meant that, even though Levi was already thinking of what kinds of fish he could stock this tank with (saltwater?  Freshwater?  Could he finally try that community tank he’d been thinking about doing for ages?), it would be Hanji’s.  Which was a shame, since Hanji would probably put something weird in it, when taking into consideration that the last tank Hanji had set up was for a bearded dragon they had named Bean.  Before Levi started off for home, with a great acrylic 50 gallon tank in the back of his car and just about to start it up, Hanji sent him a text reminding him to let his binder a bit looser before he cracked a rib again.  Which...Now that Levi was thinking about it, after all the physical shit he’d done today, was definitely a possibility.  Grumbling under his breath with annoyance, Levi went into the shop’s employee bathroom and finagled with his binder until it was just loose enough that Hanji probably wouldn’t be annoyed with him.  Probably.

  Traffic was, of course, murder, and Levi had to pull over more than once to just lay his head against the dashboard and scream about stupid drivers.  He had a tank to protect, damn it!  Why couldn’t they use their goddamn blinkers?!  It was a great relief to pull into the parking lot of their apartment complex, even if he did have a tiny bit of trouble getting the tank out of the car and attempting to open the door, as there was no way he’d be putting the tank down until he was in his apartment.  Someone Levi vaguely recognized as being from the complex hurried over to open the door for him, and he mumbled a tiny thank you before making a beeline for the stairs like the fucknugget he was.  Three flights of stairs, and another struggle with the door to the third floor, and soon enough Levi was digging out his keys to unlock the apartment door, taking a second to ground himself before swinging it open.

  The sweltering heat of the apartment blasted into Levi like a well-meaning friend that couldn’t control the strength of their hugs.  Hanji always set the thermostat high when they were home doing research, which apparently was the case from the drawn out “hellooooooooo” that echoed from their office.  Well, they made it into an office:  It was originally a large closet that Hanji shoved their desk and a few tanks into and declared it as an office space.  Which was perfectly fine with Levi, as they had agreed years before that Hanji could keep their office however they wished, but the rest of the apartment would be up to Levi’s standard of clean.  Levi toed off his shoes at the door, a frown on his face as he spotted a light trail of dirt leading in the direction of Hanji’s office. 

  “Hanji, why is there dirt on my floor?”  Levi asked loudly, shutting the door with a nudge of his hip.  The new tank went to sit on a table in their entryway, fitting as perfectly as Levi had thought it would, as Levi followed the trail exactly to the closed door of Hanji’s office.  Hanji didn’t respond, which meant they either knew they’d fucked up, or were back at whatever they’d been doing when Levi came home.  He easily swept up the dirt in the hall, relieved to see it was just plain potting soil and not manure.   Once disposed of, Levi made a beeline back to Hanji’s office, determined to figure out why the fuck they’d gotten dirt everywhere.

  “Don’t come in, I’m naked!”  Hanji squawked as Levi turned the doorknob and entered with his eyes shut and a frown firmly on his face.  It was probably extremely unsanitary for Hanji to be doing whatever studies they did naked, and Levi really wanted no part of it, but he cracked an eye open at Hanji’s loud guffaw.

  “I can’t believe you closed your eyes, that’s amazing,”  Hanji snorted, as Levi cracked an eye open to see that Hanji was very not naked.  But what made his other eye snap open and glare at them was seeing that they had the tank that Levi was hoping to fill with water tonight...Halfway full of dirt.

  “Fucking hell Handjob, what did you put in my tank?”  Levi demanded, taking a slight step forward before rethinking it and stepping back.  For all he knew, there was another goddamn tarantula in there, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near that shit.  Hanji grinned at him and dug their hands into the tank, the screen having been shoved out of the way carelessly, before presenting him with a giant-ass snail.

  “Levi, meet my new son, Sawney.  Sawney, I hope you like your new daddy!”  Hanji cooed at the slimy creature in their hands.  Levi cringed at the trail of slime it was leaving as it moved up to Hanji’s arm, immediately reaching for the wet wipe package he had placed by the door.  Just seeing it squelch along made his arms tingle and feel disgusting.

  “That thing is disgusting.  I was going to use that tank for a betta fish,” Levi grumbled as Hanji continued to coo at it like a proud parent.  

  “Oh, he’ll grow on you Levi, trust me on that one,” Hanji said with a wink as they placed Sawney back into his tank.  Levi’s lip curled in disgust as Hanji wiped the slime trail off of their hands onto their shirt, and flung the package of wet wipes at them.  Somehow, Levi didn’t believe that was possible.

 

* * *

  
  


  Several weeks passed without incident, before Hanji had decided to go for a day long conference on some finding or another about mollusks that they were extremely excited about.  Of course, Hanji forgot to warn Levi of this until the morning that they left, which happened to be on at the beginning of the week that Levi had decided to use his holiday hours on.  Which meant he would be at home alone with all of their tanks, and Hanji needed him to take care of all of their creatures.

  “Now, don’t forget, Sawney needs his tank to have at least sixty percent humidity, and at least eight hours of light, give him a few cucumber chunks and lettuce, he’ll be good.  You know how to care for the crickets, and Rudy is basically self sufficient, so don’t worry about her too much, throw a few crickets in with her if you remember.  Bean needs a few crickets or mealworms in, and make sure his water bowl is full and that his UV light is on,”  Hanji babbled at Levi’s half awake form as they streaked around the room, gathering up last minute things they might need.  Levi’s eyes drooped even more than usual, as Hanji had woken him up with their screeching about being late, only an hour after Levi was finally been able to get some sleep.  He grumbled sleepily at Hanji, who paused for half a second to smack an almost violent kiss against his temple, before speeding out the door with a shout of “goodbye babe, take good care of the kids!”

  Rubbing his eyes, Levi grumbled about not actually having children, before staggering back to bed and laying down to nap.  Or, well, lay with his eyes closed until his phone buzzed loudly a few hours later with a long list of texts from Hanji reminding him how to care for their pets.  With a groan, Levi slapped at his phone until it shut off, sighing in delight at the blessed mostly-silence of babbling tank filters.  The 50 gallon tank had been set up in their bedroom, and while it was empty aside from a few plants anchored to twisted pieces of wood or rocks, it was still very nice to look at.  Which was exactly what Levi did, watching the leaves of the Amazon sword plant wave about lazily in the current created by the filter.  Maybe he’d put a whole bunch of tiger barbs in there, they were pretty and zippy and interesting to watch...Or maybe guppies?

  It was easy to let the day slip by, thinking about what fish to stock the tank with.  Something fast and pretty to look at would be nice on nights when Levi couldn’t sleep, but on the same hand, something that wasn’t moving as fast as lightning constantly could be nice...Maybe Levi would get another tank today, so he could have a tank of flashy, fast swimmers, and a tank of more placid fish.  His saltwater tank in the living room, the two betta tanks in the hallways, and his freshwater plant tank in the kitchen, were pretty nice...Maybe he’d get a few pretty gouramis...Levi startled violently when his phone went off once again, eyes narrowed in annoyance as ideas of schooling fish evaporated.  It was another text from Hanji, this time reminding him to loosen his binder (that he hadn’t even put on yet today) and that they would be home soon, and Levi’s eyes widened when he realized what time it was.

  “Shit shit shit, fuck,” Levi yelped as he shot out of bed, and quickly ran from room to room to feed his fish, before creeping with trepidation into Hanji’s office of creepy animals ™.  The crickets were still chirping happily in the dark, as Levi guiltily turned on the UV lamp of Bean’s tank and the light over Sawney’s.  Cricket capture went easily, and he threw a few into Bean’s and Rudy’s tanks, not staying to watch them hunt as he ran to hastily cut up a cucumber.  (Hanji had said to feed it cucumber, right?  Fuck, it was getting a goddamn cucumber.)

  The screen on Sawney’s tank was held on with a bunch of rickety wiring, which made Levi raise a brow.  Surely a goddamn snail wouldn’t need that much to keep the top closed?  Shrugging it off, he scoped out the tank until he noticed it was slowly sliding along a rock in the back corner, and wiggling the wire out of place so he could drop few of cucumber chunks a little bit in front of it.  Pleased that he’d gotten everything that he was supposed to done, Levi spent a few minutes struggling to get the wire back into place.  Damn Hanji and their complicated messes!  It took a lot longer to get it on than to get it off, and Levi let out a loud whoop of delight as the lid slid into place and no longer moved.  He sat back for a second, proud of his handiwork, before looking into the snail’s tank.

  “Oh,” He breathed, watching in fascination as the cucumber disappear into its tiny mouth, nibbling at it frantically, “Not bad…”.  It was surprisingly soothing to watch it eat, as quick as it was, and soon enough all of the cucumber that he had thrown in was vanished into this huge mollusk’s tummy.  Almost unthinkingly, Levi popped the lid off and tossed another cucumber chunk in near Sawney’s face, taking a large bite out of one in his hand.  Sawney moved slowly to the chunk, and Levi watched as it ate, surprisingly delighted.  It was...Surprisingly cute, as it slithered around and left a trail of slime, eating at speeds Levi never thought possible for a snail.  Each time a cucumber chunk was devoured, Levi tossed another one in, grinning as it found each chunk and ate.  

  “Wow!  I don’t think I’ve seen you smile that much, not even on our wedding day!”  Hanji said with a laugh, scaring the everloving  _ shit _ out of Levi.  Hanji wasn’t exactly a quiet person, and Levi should’ve heard them coming.  Hanji’s grin was just a slight bit teasing, but for the most part just they appeared delighted that Levi had apparently liked Sawney.  He tried in vain to replace the smile that was still softening his features with a scowl as he brushed past Hanji into their living room, on his way to the kitchen.

  “I don’t even get a thank you for taking care of that gross thing?”  Levi asked incredulously as he threw what was left of the cucumber chunks into a small tupperware container and shoved it into the fridge.  Hanji laughed to themselves as they fixed the lid on Sawney’s tank, shaking their at Levi being so determined to pretend he didn’t like Sawney.  Eventually Hanji drifted into the kitchen to watch Levi stare into their mostly empty fridge, as if contemplating what to make, even though it was almost 10pm.  And judging by the snarling noises from Levi’s stomach, it was obvious to Hanji that he hadn’t eaten all day.

  “Wanna get takeout?  Whatever you wanna get, even that shitty Thai place you like, I’ll pay,” Hanji offered in lieu of a thank you.  Levi froze with his ears perked, like a dog that wasn’t sure if he had heard right, but was very excited anyways.

  “...Okay then,” Levi said, slamming the fridge closed as Hanji dug their phone out of their pocket.  Levi always wanted the exact same thing, so Hanji knew what to order before he unceremoniously shoved their takeout menu into their face like an excited child.  “I’m going to shower, get all the germs from being in that room off of me,” Levi mumbled as Hanji called, getting a thumbs up in response.  At least he’d be rolling in cheap Thai takeout by the time he was done.


End file.
